This was how St. John’s used to look in big games, pre-Rick Pitino.
Shell-shocked. Unsure of itself. Lacking focus and poise.
Without the Hall of Fame coach, who wasn’t on the sideline due to a bout of COVID-19, his team didn’t show up Tuesday night.
It looked leaderless.
It took the Johnnies nearly five minutes to score their first points, and the night never really improved.
Seton Hall was by far the better team, riding a head-spinning 28-0 run bridging the first and second halves to an 80-65 beatdown at Prudential Center, sending St. John’s to its second straight road loss.
It fell to 1-12 in the Newark arena all time, a house of horrors for the Johnnies.
In one of its worst performances of the season, St. John’s trailed by 14 at the break and never got back into the game.
It was tentative, out-hustled and out-toughed by the gritty, more physical Pirates.
Steve Masiello, filling in for Pitino, didn’t have any answers. Nobody in red did.
Joel Soriano was outplayed by Seton Hall backup center Elijah Hutchins-Everett and sat most of the second half.
Daniss Jenkins was St. John’s only starter to reach double figures, with 17 points on 6 of 14 shooting. Zuby Ejiofor added 13 off the bench.
Former Johnnies player Dylan Addae-Wusu hurt his old team, producing 16 points, 10 rebounds and five assists.
But this wasn’t about any one player. This was a complete obliteration.
Seton Hall (13-5, 6-1) out-rebounded St. John’s by 21, outscored the Red Storm in the paint, 28-24, and toyed with them for most of the night.
The Johnnies (12-6, 4-3) now face a critical two-game homestand against No. 17 Marquette on Saturday and Villanova four days later.
There is optimism that Pitino will be back by then.
He began to feel symptoms last Thursday, but tested negative on Friday and Saturday.
He began feeling ill again after shootaround on Tuesday and tested positive.
St. John’s was also without guard Jordan Dingle due to COVID, according to a source.
Seton Hall, meanwhile, continued its remarkable run to start the league season.
It is all alone atop the Big East standings at 6-1 after it was picked to finish ninth in the conference.
Kadary Richmond, a Big East Player of the Year contender, controlled the game. He notched 10 points, eight rebounds and four assists and Al-Amir Dawes added 21 points.
The start to the first half was poor and the finish to it was worse. Seton Hall scored the game’s first six points and the final 14 of the opening 20 minutes, taking a commanding 14-point lead into the break.
It was one-sided aside from a brief stretch when Seton Hall went cold.
But it was the aggressor. It was more physical. It was tougher.
It was 22-8 in the paint in favor of the Pirates and 10-0 in transition.
Over the final 4:33 of the half, St. John’s went scoreless and committed four turnovers.
It had nine in all over the first 20 minutes, leading to 10 Seton Hall points.
The Johnnies shot 33.3 percent from the field and were outrebounded by eight. Basically, nothing went right. Soriano and Jenkins shot a combined 6 of 16 from the field and St. John’s made just 2 of 11 3-point attempts.
It didn’t get better after the intermission.
Seton Hall scored the first 14 points, racing out to a 52-24 lead.
It wasn’t until Glenn Taylor Jr.’s 3-pointer that St. John’s finally scored, ending the 8:30 drought.
The rest of the game was more or less garbage time.
